19:18 . 07/05
Dinosaurs may be partly to blame for a change in climate because they created so much flatulence, according to leading scientists, Daily Mail informs.
Professor Graeme Ruxton of St Andrews University, Scotland, said the giant animals spent 150 years emitting the potent global warming gas, methane.
Large plant-eating sauropods would have been the main culprits because of the huge amounts of greenery they consumed.
The team calculated the animals would have collectively produced more than 520m tons of methane a year - more than all today's modern sources put together.
We should note for comparison that the modern cattle produce 100m tons of methane a year.
'In fact, our calculations suggest these dinosaurs may have produced more methane than all the modern sources, natural and human, put together,' said co-researcher David Wilkinson
It is even possible that the climate change was so catastrophic that it caused the dinosaurs eventual demise.
